


Purple

by EmeraldTulip



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Gen, One Shot, Post-Season 2, Pre-Relationship, Prompt Fic, Tumblr Prompt, but these two are the only actual characters, mentions of abuse, the other kids are mentioned and do technically have an important role
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 10:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12455628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldTulip/pseuds/EmeraldTulip
Summary: Lucas finds out Billy’s been hitting Max.





	Purple

**Author's Note:**

> hey, everyone! this was written to fill a prompt i got in response to a post i made on my stranger things tumblr blog (follow me and send me writing prompts/theories @he-lives-on-mirkwood).
> 
> @lucassinclairstan: @he-lives-on-mirkwood One where Max comes over to Lucas’s house after he hits her. Or Lucas finds out Billy’s been hitting Max. The latter would be nice.
> 
> so i am doing the latter! first time writing these two as main characters, and first time with this pairing, which is exciting. takes place november of 1984. so not long after season 2, and since we don’t know what happens imagine that billy survives (unfortunately) and is still living with max and their dad. enjoy!

Lucas shivers as he trudges up the pavement to The Palace, almost slipping on a huge patch of black ice on the curb.

“Shit,” he mumbles, catching himself at the last minute. He shoves his ungloved hands into his pockets and glances through a window, seeing Dustin, Mike, and Will already inside. Dustin is playing a casual game of Pac-Man as Mike and Will exchange laughs, Will’s smile still exhausted (but he’s trying). El is nowhere in sight, but that isn’t surprising considering she’s still housebound until further notice.

He spots their bikes in the rack by the front of the arcade, and he wishes he had his, but someone—probably Troy—slashed his tires so he can’t use it. Not that it would be very helpful, in this weather, but hey, his friends managed. He’s just heading for the door when someone slams into him, and he stumbles.

“Hey, watch it!” he yells harshly, grabbing on to the bike rack to stay standing as the other figure crashes to the ground. Then he realizes who he’s looking at, and he immediately feels awful.

Max is staring up at him, except he can’t actually _see_ her. The only recognizable feature of hers is the long red hair spilling out from under her cap, which is pulled low over her forehead. A scarf is thrown over her mouth and nose, thick-rimmed glasses obscuring her face and making her eyes look huge. Lights from the arcade shadow the left side of her face. For a moment he’s back in those tunnels, feeling the air turn toxic in his lungs and his panic rocket through the roof as they go further than anyone (other than Will and El) has gone before. For a moment he watches Dustin fall and Steve swing his bat and Mike is with Will and then he’s with them and Will is lost and El is gone and Max just screams and screams and _screams_.

And now she’s looking at him, wide eyes magnified behind her huge glasses. And there’s something that Lucas doesn’t like there, something he’s seen before—not often, sure, but he’s seen it, though never directed at him.

Max is scared.

“I—I’m sorry,” he says, tripping over his words. “Max, I’m so sorry.” He starts to hold out a hand to help her up, but she just puts a palm on the ground and stands on her own.

“It’s fine,” she says, muffled by the scarf, and on the surface she sounds normal but Lucas can hear the tremor behind her voice. He opens his mouth, hand dropping back to his side, but she cuts him off. “I’m fine, Lucas. Really.”

“I, uh…” he trails off. “I thought that you said you were busy all this weekend. If I knew you weren’t, I’d have called and invited you…”

“I _was_ busy,” she tells him, eyes sliding to the ground. “I, uh. Didn’t know I was free until just now. I didn’t know you would be here, either.”

“Oh,” he says, internally screaming at himself because _Wow, Lucas, so eloquent!_ “I uh, didn’t know you wear glasses.” _Way to save, Sinclair._

She stares at him incredulously, though her lip twitches. “Yeah. I usually have contacts, but… glasses today.”

He nods. “Oh. Kay. Do you… want to go inside?” _No, she’s just standing out here for no reason. Do you even think before you open your mouth?_

Max’s eyes flicker over to the door and she seems to finally notice the three boys inside. Her eyelashes flutter. “Oh. Uh, no. I should probably… I should probably get home before Billy or my dad…”

She doesn’t finish the sentence, her usually hostile and attentive presence much too distant and tired, and it makes Lucas’s heart stutter in fear. “Max, I don’t think—”

“Bye, Lucas,” she says quickly, already turning away. _Something isn’t right._ Something in Lucas’s brain clicks, and his arm shoots out as though on its own accord. He grabs her shoulder, and she whips around, her scarf falling down in the process and her face suddenly awash in light.

Lucas’s heart just _stops_. “Max, what…?”

There’s an angry purple bruise down the whole left side of her face, from the corner of her eye all the way down to her chin. Her lip is nicked and swollen. He suspects that her large glasses and hat are covering up more damage closer to her ear, which he can’t see.

“Lucas, it’s fine,” she insists before he can say anything at all. “I’m _fine_. I just fell off my skateboard.” She doesn’t have her skateboard, and he knows it’s a lie.

His hand shakes as it comes up to her shoulder to hover over her cheek. She doesn’t flinch away, though her eyes dart down to her feet, so he takes a risk and lightly presses his hand to her face. Her skin is pale and cold, and he thinks about the quarry last year and Will’s body that wasn’t real, but he knows that the blood raging underneath the surface is practically the sun against the winter air. And she’s real. This is real. “Max… was this… your father?” Because this can’t happen, this _can’t_ be Will all over again.

“No,” she says sharply, and though her voice is defensive he can sense she’s telling the truth. “No, it wasn’t him. Lucas, I’m fi—”

“Stop it,” he chokes out, no bite to the words, because this is hard and he hates seeing this again and he hates that it’s happening to her. “You’re not fucking fine. Max, _please_. Tell me.”

She turns her face so that her left side is in shadow once more, his hand falling away. “It wasn’t my dad. I actually haven’t seen him in a week, he just got home an hour ago.”

“Was it your brother?” he asks, because he seems to want to feel that pain.

She hesitates, then nods reluctantly. “Yeah,” she says, voice almost a whisper. “It was Billy. It’s always Billy.”

 _It’s_ always _him; so this isn’t the first time. I’m gonna kill him._

“I’m gonna kill him,” he says out loud. “I’m _actually_ gonna kill him. It’ll be easy compared to everything we did last month.”

Max shakes her head. “Please, Lucas, don’t. He’s… it’s not safe, not for… Eleven or Will, even, definitely not for you, and I think Steve’s already claimed that job anyway. I just… I just needed to get out of there for a while. But I didn’t know you guys would be here. I didn’t want you to…”

“I know,” Lucas says, mind filling in the blank: _I didn’t want you to see me like this_. “It’s okay. I won’t pretend to understand but I’m sure the others will be just as ready to help if you want to go inside.”

She looks uncertain, pushing her glasses up her nose. “I don’t know…”

“You don’t have to,” he says quickly. “I just… think it might help. To not be alone.” Because, dammit, he never was in a situation like that himself but he and Mike know better than anyone how to help someone else through it. Dustin, too, though he’s never seen the worst of it. And Lucas know Max can’t do this herself, no matter how strong she is—no one can. Will couldn’t, and he’s one of the bravest people Lucas knows. Max deserves to be helped. And he can’t do that alone.

He so desperately just wants her to be safe.

Max bites her lip, glancing at the arcade’s door. Her glasses slide down her nose just a little, red hair shifts around her shoulder, and Lucas’s heart skips another beat. For a moment, he’s perfectly content with lying to himself, with saying that he’s just worried about her and the injury really does look bad, but he knows. Because yeah, he _is_ worried about her but she’s also powerful and beautiful and he thinks he loves her, bruised purple or not, and Lucas really doesn’t know what to do with that information, but that’s the truth.

“Okay,” she says, looking at him, and for a moment he just watches the colorful lights of the arcade reflect in her eyes. “Let’s go.”

He holds out a hand again, but instead of ignoring it, this time she takes it. “You can stay at my house tonight, if you want,” he offers as Max squeezes his hand.

She smiles at him. “That would be nice.”

They walk forward, she reaches out to push open the door, and Lucas dares to tell himself that it’ll all be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> not that it's relevant, but i love the idea of max having glasses. and i hate billy (i guess that is relevant).
> 
> anyway, hope you enjoyed! let me know what you think, and once again, you can scream at me about story ideas or theories over on tumblr [@he-lives-on-mirkwood](https://he-lives-on-mirkwood.tumblr.com). thanks for reading!


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